“Clean” by Soccer Mommy – Friday Featured Review

This WPTS Friday Featured Review is a special collaboration from the hosts of Anxiety Hours on WPTS Radio: Elyssa Pollio and Ella Cook!

Score: 8/10

Soccer Mommy is an artist that we hold dear to our heart. Last semester, on our show Anxiety Hours, we joked that she was a weekly requirement until we ran out of songs to play. With the release of her most recent album “Clean”, however, we will be able to make Soccer Mommy a weekly necessity once again.

Elyssa

This album has really grown on me each time I have listened to it. Some of the songs are sweet and slow and beautifully written while others are faster and angrier. This album has everything I wanted from songwriter Sophie Allison. She has really grown as a musician from the first time I listened to her music, back when she was playing my friend’s DIY spaces. This album shows emotional growth as well; she seems to be more content with who she is as a songwriter. It’s clear Sophie knows what her project is to her and how she uses it, especially because many of the songs are very personal. Songs like “Your Dog”, “Skin”, and “Last Girl” show that she really knows how to write the perfect indie pop song. While songs like “Scorpio Rising”, “Flaw”, and “ Still Clean” show her clever lyricism are and how she’s changing. I used to think of Soccer Mommy as sounding a lot like fellow bedroom singer/songwriter Alex G, but she has evolved since then, developing her own sound. This is definitely her strongest album to date. My favorite track is the full-band version of “Last Girl”; it’s the stoner indie-pop counterpart to Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me”, and I don’t have to feel guilty listening to and enjoying it. Overall, I give Soccer Mommy’s “Clean” an 8/10!

Ella

If you’ve been a long time Soccer Mommy listener (like us at Anxiety Hours), it is evident that Sophie has not had an easy time, romantically. Her previous works vulnerably tackle the injustices posed in an emotionally abusive relationship. Her newest album, “Clean”, moves forward from this abuse, though she is still in the process of moving on from a past relationship. Her attitude has changed from upset to angry, describing every step of moving on in beautifully melancholic detail. Songs like “Your Dog” and “Flaw” describe the end of the relationship and the initial heartbreak that ensues. She then questions the authenticity of the relationship with “Still Clean” and “Blossom (Wasting All My Time)”—she wonders what was real and if her partner ever truly loved her. Songs like “Skin” and “Scorpio Rising” suggest that she is beginning to move on and may finally be in a healthy relationship. Having recently escaped a similar relationship, every word she sings resonates with me. I have always loved Soccer Mommy’s music and have unfortunately related to a lot of it, but this album gave me hope for the both of us. I feel like I have grown with her, making this album an 8/10 for me.

You can come cry with Ella and Elyssa on Anxiety Hours from 2 to 4 PM on Mondays. This review was edited by Sean Bailey of the WPTS Editorial Borad.